Bum note

My music collection is not conducive to platforming glory. I don't think I'm particularly upset about this. Most of the songs create manic collections of scenery, interspersed with barren sections where loneliness is my only companion.

Some of the songs transform into chaotic undulating masses of things to slide under and things to jump over, asking the sort of precision of my ageing fingers that they no longer possess. But then, I never bought the songs to build a game with them.

That's the idea at the core of SongRush, and while it's an interesting one the bland nature of the backgrounds and the simple leap / slide gameplay makes for a rather disappointing experience.

Scales

There are a few songs included with the game, and once you've completed one of them you can start to upload your own tracks. This takes about 30 seconds, and once the track is up it's given a grade based on its difficulty.

The controls are the same for each level. Tap on the left of the screen to slide and the right of the screen to jump. Hit an obstacle and you'll slow down. Hit too many and you'll be grabbed by the tentacles that are chasing you through each level.

IAPs explained

You'll need tokens to play. While these regenerate over time, you'll have to spend some notes to get some. You can buy these with real-life cash.

Note packs come in bundles ranging from £1.49 / $1.99 for 1500 to £10.49 / $14.99 for 20,000. You get special offers as you play, too.

You can buy VIP passes that let you pay as much as you want for a set amount of time. These range in price from £4.99 / $6.99 for seven days to £39.99 / $59.99 for unlimited.

Then, there are extra boosts you can buy that give you permanent tokens and XP multipliers.

Everything feels overpriced, and the game just doesn't have the gameplay to back up its pricing structure.

Tapping a side just before you hit an obstacle - and in time with the song that's playing - speeds you up and sends you closer to the centre of the screen. You earn more points for being nearer the middle, and for chaining together combos of near-misses.

You're always sliding and leaping over the same six or seven obstacles, and the backgrounds remain the same every run. You might be running to your own music, but other than the placement of the dangers you're trying to avoid not much else changes.

Strained

Then there's the token system that powers the game. You need a token for every run, but you only start with two. The notes you pick up as you run can be spent on more tokens, but you rarely earn enough to buy the tokens before your stash runs out.

That leaves you with two options. You either pay for some more notes, or you wait for another token to generate. In an entertaining game this would be a frustration. In SongRush it's just another reason to stop playing.